I'm not sure if I know any 'functional' families, if functional means a family without difficult times and members who don't have a full range of problems.

I'm not sure if I know any 'functional' families, if functional means a family without difficult times and members who don't have a full range of problems.

Anyone who has lived through it, or those who are now living through it, knows that caring about an addict is as complex and fraught and debilitating as addiction itself.

An alcoholic will steal your wallet and lie to you. A drug addict will steal your wallet and then help you look for it.

How can both Nics, the loving and considerate and generous one, and the self-obsessed and self-destructive one, be the same person?

A world of contradictions, wherein everything is gray and almost nothing is black and white.

The hopeful part about that is when you do have that help, you will feel better. It still doesn't make this easy. Nothing makes this easy, but you can make better decisions.